Protest against hydel power project on Lepcha reserve

Gangtok, Sikkim: General secretary of Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT) Dawa T. Lepcha, who has been on hunger strike for the past 23 days, was shifted to hospital this morning after his pressure dropped drastically.

Lepcha, who is also a documentary film-maker, has been admitted to Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial Hospital. Twenty-year-old Tenzing Gyatso Lepcha, an ACT member, was admitted to the same hospital five days ago with high fever and low pressure. Both the activists said they would continue fasting at the hospital. Thirteen other ACT members are fasting at B.L. House on Sonam Gyatso Marg here.

The ACT members are on hunger strike to demand the immediate scrapping of all the mega hydel power projects in the Lepcha reserve of Dzongu in North Sikkim.

A saline channel attached to his right hand, Tenzing, told that he was not willing to give up so soon. “I have already come this far and I think there is no stopping until a positive decision is reached. I am ready to give up my life in the course of this protest,” said Tenzing who has recently taken his final-year examinations at Sikkim Government College.

The ACT members today thanked the Rong Ong Prongzom (Lepcha Youth Organisation) for organising the recent roadblock in Kalimpong. They described the act of solidarity by the indigenous people of the Darjeeling hills as a historic event. “It is unfortunate to term the peaceful expression of dissent by the aborigines of the hills as unlawful,” said Tseten Lepcha, the chief coordinator of ACT.

The statement is in reply to the Sikkim government’s release on Wednesday, condemning the roadblock. The government, had in a communiqué yesterday, said it had taken serious note of rumours being spread by vested interest groups on the so-called threat posed to Dzongu and other project sites.

“The state government reiterates that all developmental projects being undertaken in the state are as per the procedure prescribed by law which provided for public hearing of the projects at its site. In fact the whole process has been a detailed and lengthy procedure addressing the concerns for environment and tradition,” the release read.

There was, however, no new proposal for the protesters from the government today.

Source: The Telegraph